Universal rru mounting assembly

ABSTRACT

An assembly for mounting one or more RRUs to a mounting structure includes: first and second mounting panels, each of the first and second mounting panels having a main body and a flange that extends generally perpendicularly to the main body, the main body including mounting apertures patterned for mounting of an RRU; a mounting foundation having side edges, each of the side edges having an open-ended slot; mounting members extending from the flanges away from the main body of each of the first and second mounting panels, the mounting members configured to enter the open-ended slots on the mounting foundation and slide therein, and fasteners cooperating with the mounting members to mount the mounting panel to the mounting foundation.

RELATED APPLICATION

The present application is a continuation of and claims priority to U.S.Pat. Application No. 17/038,523, filed Sep. 30, 2020, now U.S. Pat. No.11,527,815, which is a continuation of and claims priority to U.S. Pat.Application No. 15/439,488, filed Feb. 22, 2017, now U.S. Pat. No.10,797,380, which claims priority from and the benefit of U.S.Provisional Patent Application No. 62/305,295, filed Mar. 8, 2016, thedisclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein in its entirety.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present application is directed generally to the mounting ofelectronic components, and more specifically to the mounting of remoteradio units.

BACKGROUND

With increased demand for more wireless communication, the number ofradio and antenna units that a tower traditionally supports hasincreased and is expected to continue to increase. New towers will needto be designed to support greater numbers of antenna and radio units,while existing towers are retrofitted to support more units, and effortis made to fully utilize space available on the towers.

Often, remote radio units (RRUs) are mounted on legs of antenna towers.In some instances, it may be desirable to mount two RRUs on a singlemounting location. It also may be desirable to mount a complimentarymodule adjacent the RRUs.

SUMMARY

As a first aspect, embodiments of the invention are directed to anassembly for mounting one or more RRUs to a mounting structure,comprising: first and second mounting panels, each of the first andsecond mounting panels having a main body and a flange that extendsgenerally perpendicularly to the main body, the main body includingmounting apertures patterned for mounting of an RRU; a mountingfoundation having side edges, each of the side edges having anopen-ended slot; mounting members extending from the flanges away fromthe main body of each of the first and second mounting panels, themounting members configured to enter the open-ended slots on themounting foundation and slide therein, and fasteners cooperating withthe mounting members to mount the mounting panel to the mountingfoundation.

As a second aspect, embodiments of the invention are directed to amethod of mounting an RRU on a mounting structure, comprising the stepsof: mounting an RRU on a mounting panel, the mounting panel comprising amain body and a flange that extends generally perpendicularly to themain body, the main body including mounting apertures patterned formounting the RRU, wherein mounting members extend from the flanges awayfrom the main body, and wherein fasteners cooperate with the mountingmembers; mounting a mounting foundation on a mounting structure, themounting foundation having side edges, each of the side edges having anopen-ended slot; then sliding the mounting members into the open ends ofthe slots of the mounting foundation; and securing the fasteners on themounting members to compress the flanges and the mounting foundation,thereby mounting the RRU on the mounting structure.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

FIG. 1 is a partially exploded perspective view of an RRU mountingassembly according to embodiments of the invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of two mounting assemblies of FIG. 1 .

FIG. 3 is a top view of the mounting assemblies of FIG. 2 .

FIG. 4 is a side view of the mounting assemblies of FIG. 2 .

FIG. 5 is a top view of the mounting assemblies as in FIG. 3 with twoRRUs mounted thereon.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of the mounting assemblies and RRUs of FIG.5 .

FIG. 7 is a top view of the mounting assemblies of FIG. 2 with themounting panels oriented with the flanges extending inwardly, and withtwo RRUs and two A2 modules mounted thereon.

FIG. 8 is a perspective view of the mounting assemblies, RRUs and A2modules of FIG. 7 .

FIG. 9 is a perspective view of two RRU mounting assemblies according toadditional embodiments of the invention.

FIG. 10 is a perspective view of two RRU mounting assemblies accordingto further embodiments of the invention.

FIG. 11 is a perspective view of a portion of an RRU mounting assemblyaccording to still further embodiments of the invention, with themounting panels oriented with the flanges extending outwardly.

FIG. 12 is a perspective view of a portion of an RRU mounting assemblyaccording to yet further embodiments of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The present invention now is described more fully hereinafter withreference to the accompanying drawings, in which embodiments of theinvention are shown. This invention may, however, be embodied in manydifferent forms and should not be construed as limited to theembodiments set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided sothat this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fullyconvey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art.

Like numbers refer to like elements throughout. In the figures, thethickness of certain lines, layers, components, elements or features maybe exaggerated for clarity. Broken lines illustrate optional features oroperations unless specified otherwise.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particularembodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the invention.Unless otherwise defined, all terms (including technical and scientificterms) used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by oneof ordinary skill in the art to which this invention belongs. It will befurther understood that terms, such as those defined in commonly useddictionaries, should be interpreted as having a meaning that isconsistent with their meaning in the context of the specification andrelevant art and should not be interpreted in an idealized or overlyformal sense unless expressly so defined herein. Well-known functions orconstructions may not be described in detail for brevity and/or clarity.

As used herein, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” are intended toinclude the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicatesotherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises”and/or “comprising,” when used in this specification, specify thepresence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements,and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of oneor more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements,components, and/or groups thereof. As used herein, the term “and/or”includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associatedlisted items. As used herein, phrases such as “between X and Y” and“between about X and Y” should be interpreted to include X and Y. Asused herein, phrases such as “between about X and Y” mean “between aboutX and about Y.” As used herein, phrases such as “from about X to Y” mean“from about X to about Y.”

It will be understood that when an element is referred to as being “on”,“attached” to, “connected” to, “coupled” with, “contacting”, etc.,another element, it can be directly on, attached to, connected to,coupled with or contacting the other element or intervening elements mayalso be present. In contrast, when an element is referred to as being,for example, “directly on”, “directly attached” to, “directly connected”to, “directly coupled” with or “directly contacting” another element,there are no intervening elements present. It will also be appreciatedby those of skill in the art that references to a structure or featurethat is disposed “adjacent” another feature may have portions thatoverlap or underlie the adjacent feature.

Spatially relative terms, such as “under”, “below”, “lower”, “over”,“upper”, “lateral”, “left”, ”right“ and the like, may be used herein forease of description to describe one element or feature’s relationship toanother element(s) or feature(s) as illustrated in the figures. It willbe understood that the spatially relative terms are intended toencompass different orientations of the device in use or operation inaddition to the orientation depicted in the figures. For example, if thedevice in the figures is inverted, elements described as “under” or“beneath” other elements or features would then be oriented “over” theother elements or features. The device may be otherwise oriented(rotated 90 degrees or at other orientations) and the descriptors ofrelative spatial relationships used herein interpreted accordingly.

With reference to the figures, an RRU mounting assembly 11 includesgenerally U-shaped front and rear pipe clamps 13, 15 (see FIGS. 1-6 ).The front and rear pipe clamps 13, 15 are held together by two threadedbolts or rods 23 that are inserted through aligned holes 25, 27 locatednear the edges of the pipe clamps 13, 15 and secured with nuts 28, 29.Tightening of the bolts 23 enables the pipe clamps 13, 15 to clamp theleg of an antenna tower, with the tower leg being held between therecesses 14, 16 in the pipe clamps 13, 15.

It can be seen in FIG. 4 that, in some embodiments, the rear pipe clamp15 may be shorter than the front pipe clamp 13; for example, the rearpipe clamp may be 4 inches in height, whereas the front clamp may be 6inches in height. The bolts 23 are typically of sufficient length thatthe front and rear pipe clamps 13, 15 may clamp around a mountingstructure, such as the leg of an antenna tower, that is between about 2and 20 inches in diameter. Structures other than antenna tower legs,such as antenna frames, antenna pipes, monopoles, street poles, lightpoles, sector frames, telecommunications racks, and the like, may alsoserve as suitable mounting structures for the assembly 11.

The front pipe clamp 13 includes two open ended slots 31, 33 on eachside edge, with one slot 31 located above the hole 25 and the other slot33 located below the hole 25. The slots 31, 33 are generally T-shaped.

Referring still to FIG. 1 , the RRU mounting assembly 11 includes twoL-shaped mounting panels 41, each of which has a main body 43 and twoflanges 45, 47 with a gap 46 between the flanges 45, 47. The main body43 includes three rows of two aligned elongate slots 49, with the rowsof slots 49 being separated from each other by about 1.5 inches. Each ofthe flanges 45, 47 has a hole 51 that receives a bolt 53. The bolt 53 isthreaded through an optional washer 57 into a nut 55. The bolts 53 arevertically spaced from each other essentially the same distance as theslots 31, 33 of the front pipe clamp 13.

As can be seen in FIG. 2 , the bolts 53 are threaded into the nuts 55,and the bolts 53 are slid into the open ended slots 31, 33. The T-shapeof the slots 31, 33 enables the bolts 53 to slide inwardly, then descendto the lowest ends of the slots 31, 33; the gap 46 prevents the bolts 23of the pipe clamps 13, 15 from interfering with the sliding action. Thenuts 55 can then be tightened to secure the flanges 45, 47 to the frontpipe clamp 13.

The configuration of the front pipe clamp 13 and the mounting panels 41enable the mounting panels 41 to be mounted either closely spaced fromeach other (as shown in FIGS. 2-6 ) or more distantly spaced from eachother (as shown in FIGS. 7 and 8 ). In each instance, the same processof sliding the threaded bolts 53 with nuts 55 thereon into the slots 31,33 is followed. If the mounting panels 41 are in the orientation shownin FIGS. 2-6 (i.e., with the flanges 45, 47 extending laterally, so thatthe flanges 45, 47 of the pair of mounting panels 41 extend away fromeach other), the mounting panels 41 are closely spaced from one other(typically between about 2 and 3 inches apart). In this orientation, themounting panels 41 can provide mounting locations for two RRUs 60 in a“back-to-back” configuration, as shown in FIGS. 5 and 6 .

If instead the mounting panels 41 are in the orientation shown in FIGS.7 and 8 (i.e., with the flanges 45, 47 extending inwardly toward theflanges 45, 47 of the other mounting panel 41), the mounting panels 41are more distantly spaced from each other (i.e., between about 7 and 9inches apart). In this orientation, the mounting panels 41 can providemounting locations for two RRUs 60', with one RRU 60' located laterallyfrom each mounting panel 41, and also for two A2 modules 70 sandwichedbetween the mounting panels 41, with one A2 module 70 mounted to eachmounting panel 41, as shown in FIGS. 7 and 8 .

It should also be noted that the configuration of the front pipe clamp13 and the mounting panels 41 can facilitate mounting. In one mountingtechnique, the mounting panel 41 is first attached to an RRU 60. 60'(and to an A2 module 70, if included) with fasteners (e.g., bolts orscrews) inserted through the slots 49, and the nuts 55 can be threadedonto the bolts 53 as they extend through the holes 51. These steps canbe completed on the ground. Separately, the front and rear clamps 13, 15are installed onto a mounting structure, such as the leg of an antennatower. The RRU 60. 60' and attached mounting panel 41 can then beconveyed up the tower to the mounting location, where the bolts 53 areslid into the open ends of the slots 31, 33 of the front pipe clamp 13and to the lowest ends of the slots 31, 33. The nuts 55 can then betightened on the bolts 53 to secure the mounting panel 41 (and in turnthe RRU 60, 60') to the front pipe clamp 13. This technique reduces thedegree to which the technician has to support and maneuver the RRU 60.60' while positioned on the tower well above the ground.

Those skilled in this art will appreciate that the configuration of themounting assembly 11 can vary. For example, in some embodiments theslots 31, 33 of the front pipe clamp 13 may be straight, arcuate, oreven L-shaped rather than T-shaped. The front pipe clamp 13 may bemounted to the antenna tower or other mounting structure in a differentmanner or, on some embodiments, a component other than a front pipeclamp may serve as a mounting foundation.

In other embodiments, the configuration of the mounting panels 41 mayvary. Additional flanges may be included, and/or the gap 46 may beomitted so that only a single large flange is present. The slots 49 inthe main body 43 of the mounting panel 41 may be apertures of adifferent configuration and/or pattern, or may be omitted altogether,with another technique for mounting an RRU to the mounting panel (suchas hooks stamped from the main body) used.

Further, in some embodiments the bolts 53 may be replaced as mountingmembers; For example, rather than using a separate and distinctcomponent, such as a bolt, a threaded post may be fixed to and extendfrom each flange. It can also be envisioned that other varieties offasteners (e.g., clamps and the like) may be employed to secure thebolts or other mounting members to the front pipe clamp.

In some embodiments, additional components may be mounted to themounting panels 41 to provide the technician with more flexibility inmounting the RRUs and/or A2 modules. FIG. 9 shows two mountingassemblies 11' that include mounting extensions 65 mounted to themounting panels 41. Each mounting extension 65 has a C-shaped channel 66and a mounting finger 67. A slot 68 is located in the base of thechannel 66. As can be envisioned from examination of FIG. 9 , themounting extensions 65 are mounted to the mounting panels 41 via a boltinserted through a hole 69 in the finger 67 and through one of the slots49 in the mounting panel 41. The presence of the slot 49 enables themounting extensions 65 to be mounted in a variety of “fore-and-aft”positions relative to the pipe clamps 13,15.

FIG. 9 illustrates that the mounting extensions 65 may be mounted withthe channels 66 extending upwardly or downwardly (both configurationsare shown on the assemblies 11' depicted in FIG. 9 ). As a result, RRUsof considerably different sizes can be mounted on the same pair ofassemblies 11'. Notably, the edges of the channels 66 rest against anupper or lower edge of the mounting panel 41, thereby providingstability to the mounting of the mounting extensions 65.

A different variety of mounting extension is illustrated in FIG. 10 anddesignated broadly at 75. The mounting extension 75 is generally planarand has a double “T-shaped” configuration, with each “T” of the mountingextension 75 including a slot 77 in the “stalk” 76 of the “T” and a slot79 in the “crown” 78 of the “T”. The crowns 78 of the ”T“s merge at oneedge. A brace 74 extends between the stalks 76 of the “T”s. The mountingextensions 75 are mounted to the mounting panels 41 with bolts insertedthrough the slots 77 and through the slots 49 of the mounting panels 41.The slots 79 provide mounting locations for RRUs. As with the mountingextensions 65, the mounting extensions 75 can be mounted with the crowns78 above or below the mounting panels 41 to provide mounting locationsfor a wide variety of different sizes of RRUs and A2 modules.

It should be noted that both the mounting extensions 65 and the mountingextensions 75 may be employed with the flanges 45, 47 of the mountingpanels 41 extending outwardly (as shown in FIG. 10 ) or inwardly (asshown in assembly 11 in FIGS. 2-6 ) to provide additional mountingoptions.

Referring now to FIG. 11 , another RRU mounting assembly, designatedbroadly at 111, is shown therein. The assembly 111 includes pipe clamps13, 15 (only the pipe clamp 13 is shown in FIG. 11 ) and a body 43 andflanges 45, 47 as shown in FIGS. 1-10 . However, in this embodiment themounting panel 185 is a multi-piece unit that includes two flat mountingbrackets 180. The mounting brackets 180 have a slotted portion 181 witha vertical slot 182 and two flanges 183 extending generally parallel toeach other and perpendicularly to the slot 182. The flanges 183 aremounted to the pipe clamp 13 in the same manner discussed above for theflanges 45, 47 of mounting panels 41 of FIGS. 1-10 : i.e., bolts (notshown in FIG. 11 ) are inserted into slots in the clamp 13 and threadedonto nuts (also not shown in FIG. 11 ). The remainder of the multi-piecemounting panels 185 can then be attached to the mounting brackets 180via bolts (not shown) inserted into through the flanges 45, 47 and theslots 182 of the slotted portions 181 of the mounting brackets 180. Thisconfiguration can enable the assembly 111 to accommodate wider A2modules and/or to space RRUs farther apart if desired, and can allow thebodies 43 of the mounting panels 185 to be mounted at differentelevations relative to the pipe clamp 13. As with the previouslydescribed assemblies, the mounting panels 185 can be mounted with theflanges 45, 47 extending outwardly (as shown in FIG. 11 ) or inwardly.

Referring now to FIG. 12 , an assembly 211 shown therein includes twopipe clamps (only pipe clamp 13 is shown in FIG. 12 ), but includes amulti-piece mounting panel 295 of a different configuration. The body243 is a flat panel that lacks integral flanges. Instead, the body 243is mounted to an angled mounting bracket 290 that is somewhat similar tothe clamp extension 180 described above, but with fingers that are bentat a generally right angle to form mounting flanges 293. Thus, the body243 and the angled mounting bracket 290 together form a multi-pieceflanged mounting panel 295. The flanges 293 mount to the pipe clamp 13as described above, but the body 243 mounts to the mounting bracket 290via bolts (not shown) inserted through holes 251 in the body 243 andthrough slots 292 of the slotted portion 291 of the mounting bracket290. This configuration can enable the assembly 111 to accommodate widerA2 modules and/or to space RRUs farther apart if desired, and can allowthe bodies 243 to be mounted at different elevations relative to thepipe clamp 13. The mounting brackets 290 can also be mounted with theends of the flanges 293 extending inwardly (as shown in FIG. 12 ) oroutwardly as desired.

The invention being thus described, it will be obvious that the same maybe varied in many ways. Such variations are not to be regarded as adeparture from the spirit and scope of the invention, and all suchmodifications as would be obvious to one skilled in the art are to beincluded within the scope of the following claims.

That which is claimed is:
 1. An assembly for mounting one or more remoteradio heads (RRUs) to a mounting structure, comprising: first and secondmounting panels, each of the first and second mounting panels having amain body and a pair of flanges that extend generally perpendicularly tothe main body, the main body including mounting apertures patterned formounting of an RRU; a mounting foundation comprising first and secondpipe clamps, wherein the first pipe clamp has side edges, each of theside edges having two open-ended slots; and mounting members extendingfrom the flanges of each of the first and second mounting panels, themounting members received in the open-ended slots on the first pipeclamp.
 2. The assembly defined in claim 1, wherein the open-ended slotsare T-shaped.
 3. The assembly defined in claim 1, wherein the aperturesin the main bodies of the first and second mounting panels are alignedslots.
 4. The assembly defined in claim 1, wherein mounting members areseparate and distinct components from the flanges.
 5. The assemblydefined in claim 1, wherein the flanges on the first mounting panel aremounted to extend toward the flanges of the second mounting panel. 6.The assembly defined in claim 1, wherein the flanges of the firstmounting panel are mounted to extend away from the flanges of the secondmounting panel.
 7. The assembly defined in claim 1, wherein anopen-ended slot is located between each of the pairs of flanges.
 8. Amounted RRU pair, comprising: first and second RRUs; and the assemblydefined in claim 1, wherein the first and second RRUs are mounted,respectively, to the first and second mounting panels.
 9. The mountedRRU pair defined in claim 8, wherein the flanges on the first mountingpanel are mounted to extend toward the flanges of the second mountingpanel.
 10. The mounted RRU pair defined in claim 9, wherein the firstRRU is mounted on a lateral side of the main panel.
 11. The mounted RRUpair defined in claim 10, further comprising an A2 module mounted on aninward side of the main panel.
 12. The mounted RRU pair defined in claim8, wherein the flanges of the first mounting panel are mounted to extendaway from the flanges of the second mounting panel.
 13. The mounted RRUpair defined in claim 12, wherein the first and second RRUs are mountedon an inward sides of the main panels.
 14. The assembly defined in claim1, wherein the mounting members compress the flanges of the first andsecond mounting panels against the mounting foundation.
 15. The assemblydefined in claim 1, wherein the first mounting panel includes a mountingextension mounted to the apertures and extending vertically therefrom,the mounting extension configured to mount to an RRU.
 16. A mountingfoundation for mounting RRUs, comprising: a first pipe clamp with twofirst apertures therein; a second pipe clamp with two second aperturestherein; first and second rods, wherein the first rod extends betweenone of the first apertures and one of the second apertures, and thesecond rod extends between another of the first apertures and another ofthe second apertures; wherein the second pipe clamp includes two opposedside edges, and wherein each of the side edges includes two open-endedslots.
 17. The mounting foundation defined in claim 16, wherein amounting panel for mounting an RRU is mounted to the second pipe clamp.18. The mounting foundation defined in claim 17, wherein an RRU ismounted to the mounting panel.
 19. The mounting foundation defined inclaim 16, wherein the first and second pipe clamps engage a pipe.